Lyric Theatre

213 W. 42nd Street,

New York,
NY10036

I recall hearing about that incident back when it was news. I remember finding it very ironic and quite disturbing. It had always been my experience at the Lyric and other Duece grinders during the ‘80’s, that audience participation was an anticipated part of the entire “entertainment package.” By April of '88, I was already growing impatient with the change in programming on 42nd Street (many of the theaters were trying to book more mainstream product for the top of the bill) and was disconcerted by the unpleasant odors that had started to overwhelm some of the old grind houses. This story was just another – and perhaps final – reason why I stopped turning to Times Square for my cinematic adventures.

i worked as an usher at the lyric 1945 20 bucks for 6 days work …i saw king kong and gunga din there about 50 times and still remember the dialogue…..as an usher i could go into any theatre on the block in my cheesy “uniform” at that time i think wm. brandt owned all the theatres…victory, lyric, times square, apollo,,selwyn, harris , liberty, empire and anco only the new amsterdam was the exception i remeber GRANTS across 42 stret where you could get good coffee to go and hot dogs sewrved at street level counter ……………memories

On May 4, 2006, Lost Memory had asked, hopefully in jest, “Was there ever an El train on Third Ave?” LOL! That was the infamous 3rd Ave. El, which ran the length of Manhattan from South Ferry to the Bronx, ceased operations in the city on May 12, 1955 and was razed soon afterward.

Today I purchased a 2007 calendar, “Old New York,” published by the City Museum of NY. One of the highlights was Berenice Abbott’s classic shot of the Lyric Theatre, c. 1936. Check it out.

I suppose this belongs more on the Hilton Theater page than here, but I grabbed these two shots of the former Lyric facade the other night while seeing a show next door at the New Victory with the kids:

As usual with the 42nd Street grinds, the Lyric isn’t listed at the bottom of the ad (only the National Theater around the corner on B'way is listed for Manhattan), but it was on this theater’s historic stage that Smokey Robinson made two live appearances to support this blaxploitation epic for which he wrote the musical score. I don’t imagine he sang at all at either appearance – just a few appreciative words and a wave to the crowd, I suspect.

I took a series of photos of the vacant Duece grind houses in 1993 and recently scanned them to my photobucket account. Here is a shot of the Lyric and neighboring Victory, stripped of their billboard signage and their marquees displaying some sort of public poetry project:

Was there ever a bypass on 42nd street in the 19th century? There is something similar on 42nd street shown in the latest KING KONG movie. Could it be the old east-west cattle run was still around in the thirties?

Came across a pair of old Playbills from Broadway shows I had seen when I was a teenager (one from November of 1978, the other from May of ‘81). Interesting article in the '78 Playbill about the theatrical community’s efforts to work with the Mayor (Koch during his first administration at the time) to clean up the Times Square area. There’s mention of the League of New York Theaters and Producers working with the “Mayor’s Midtown Action Office and Midtown Enforcement Project” to permanently close area peep shows, massage parlors and “other sex-related businesses.” Sound familiar? Perhaps the Giuliani’s administration circa 1994?

It’s funny how the article takes a sunny outlook on the situation, referring to a time “a few years back” when “the Times Square area was in many people’s minds a composit of Dante’s Ninth Circle and the outer space, spaced-out bar in ‘Star Wars.’ The Great White Way was splattered with sleaze. Actresses and actors went on talk shows and made jokes about muggers.” Meanwhile, any true clean-up of the area was more than a decade in the future and at the cost of some of our greatest cinematic and theatrical palaces (not to mention any trace of Times Square’s once-unique character and atmosphere).

The article also mentions a “recent announcement” by the Brandt Organization to restore the Lyric and the Apollo on 42nd Street to legitimate theaters. I don’t think anything ever came of that plan for the Lyric, but I do know that attempts were made to use the Apollo as a legitimate stage in the early ‘80’s. In fact, the '81 Playbill I found lists Richard Thomas appearing at the Apollo in “Fifth of July” under the “How many of these shows have you seen?” section in the back of the magazine. In any event, the plans did come to fruition eventually, albeit with the destruction of the orignal Lyric and Apollo interiors and the creation of the new Ford Center for the Performing Arts (now Hilton Theater) which, as described in comments above, incorporates architectural elements from both old houses into its design.

Thanks Mikeoaklandpark, I was a bit off on that location, eh? I seem to recall it ran exlusively at the renamed “Penthouse” Theater for much of 1980. I can’t remember exactly when it played the Lyric, but it must have been sometime before the film was edited down for an “R” rating and re-released fairly wide the following year. I remember going back and seeing the shorter version at the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex in Valley Stream. The film was a botch job in both versions, thanks mostly to the incompetent and incoherent editing job performed by the Penthouse publisher Guccione, who assumed control of the project and locked-out the nominal director, Tinto Brass (himself an Italian soft-porn maestro), from the completion of the project.

A lot of the notorious history behind this film (which was filmed in 1976 but not completed and released until 1979) is outlined on the movie’s imdb trivia page. There are some fine performances and evocative atmospherics, but its such a jumbled mess that it makes for a very frustrating cinematic experience. I would love to see a true “Director’s Version” with all the footage shot by Brass arranged in the precise order he intended just to see if any of the film’s glimpses of worthiness might have panned out. But that would mean Guccione and his enormous ego stepping out of the way and relinquishing control of his $17.5 million dollar epic.

EdSolero
It was the Trans Lux East on 3rd Ave Between 57 & 58. Guccione leased it for 1 year and renamed it The Penthouse. After the year Crown took over the theater remdeled it and reopened it as the Crown Gotham.

Going back to some of the “Taxi Driver” inspired debate above as to whether the old Lyric ever showed porn… I think saps is right that the theater was never one of the Duece’s full-time porno houses (like the Rialto 1 and 2, Victory and Harem were). I think Scorcese liked the theater’s outdoor vestibule area as a shooting location and had the marquee especially made up for the shoot. The Harem entrance looked like a storefront, the Rialto entrances were very small and, like the Victory’s, were flush up against the facade. My guess is the Lyric vestibule offered the right look and spaciousness that Scorcese wanted and so he took some liberties. I wonder if that is the Lyric’s interior that was used for the shots of DeNiro and Sheppard watching the movie inside the theater.

Getting back to porn… if memory serves, the Lyric did play the un-edited version of Bob Guccione’s “Caligula” very shortly after its run at the east side theater Guccione had four-walled and renamed after his Penthouse magazine. I remember my friends and I standing under the marquee and then sheepishly moseying over to the display cases in the vestibule to look over the publicity stills and cards for the movie before working up the courage finally to go in and check the film out. It was our first porn experience and I might add that several sequences were extremely difficult for us to sit through!

Speaking of “Caligula”… does anyone remember the theater that Guccione commandeered to exhibit this porn-epic? I believe it was a former Trans-Lux theater on 1st or 2nd Ave in the 30’s or 40’s? My memory is failing on that point. I tried searching under “Penthouse” here, but I guess no one has thought to add that as an AKA to whatever theater it might be.

Take note of the checkerboard motif on the neighboring Victory Theater (which featured Burlesque and was called the Republic Theater at the time of this photo, I believe) to the right of the Lyric. I know that theater has its own page, but does anyone know when that design element was incorporated into the facade? Was it concurrent with the demolition of the exterior staircase that would later be re-created for the opening of the renovated New Victory Theater in 1995?

There is an exterior shot of this theatre by Andrew Moore on line atwww.andrew-moore.info
(Just click on Photography and then Times Square 1995-2005 to bring up theatre photos)
The shot of the Lyric in the 3rd one across in the second row.
In addition, Moore has photos of the New Amsterdam, Selwyn, Times Square and Liberty theatres prior to any restoration work.

Don – You are correct about “Sometimes Sweet Susan” on the Lyric marquee in the movie “Taxi Driver.” You assumption about moving it over to the Lyric for the “Taxi Driver” shoot is reasonable. It would be in keeping with the mood of the film to have a porn film on the marquee. There are similar thoughts on this in previous comments.

Interesting…the movie “Sometimes Sweet Susan” on the Rialto marquee, was, if I remember correctly, the film on the Lyric marquee in the movie “Taxi Driver”. “Taxi Driver” was filmed around the time the photo was taken. I wonder if the film was moved over to the Lyric for the “Taxi Driver” shoot.

After being stripped of certain ornamentation and architectural elements to be later re-used, the Lyric and Apollo were guttted to the bare walls, the roof was removed, the wall between the two theatres was removed, and there you had it: four walls standing, surrounding a dirt pit. From this rose the new theater we lovingly call the Hilton (not). Some of the artwork and other elements in the new theater are originally from the Lyric and Apollo, but there are many recreations done to look as classic as the originals. And I have been to this theater many times since it first opened with Ragtime the 1990’s.